Insights

Why every business should spend £1 a day on Facebook Ads

Facebook is the largest social media platform by far with 26 million users in the UK (of which 70% are aged over 25) checking in on average 14 times a day and quite rightly most marketers and businesses have cottoned onto the massive opportunity this presents: 92 percent of marketers use Facebook for advertising, says Socialbakers.

Are you?

Rumours abound that users are leaving Facebook, but a recent You Gov report found it to be highly influential: “Facebook is still the dominant force, with 86% of active social media users using the service. This is almost double the proportion of its nearest competitor, YouTube, which is used by 46% of active social media users. Twitter, the third most popular, is used by around a third (32%) of active social media users, while Instagram and Pinterest are used by 9% and 6%, respectively.”

The secret

It’s not enough anymore to just be busy with Posting on your page. Only a tiny fraction of your Posts will be seen by your fans. Typically only 2 to 6% of your fans will see any given post. With 1000 Page Likes, that’s just 20 people. Which is why Facebook offers us the opportunity to pay to promote, boost or advertise posts. (They all come under the single term of ‘FB Ads’). For some this is a turn off, or seen as a betrayal by Facebook, but I (and many others!) see it as a gift. The secret is to embrace the new rules of ‘pay to play’ and focus on the marketing value Facebook presents.
Facebook ads offer the cheapest way to reach your audience. EVER.

The laser-like targeting you can do is phenomenal and coupled with the scale of its reach it really is a unique media. And importantly it doesn’t have to be expensive. In addition, with the very granular reporting functionality, Facebook acts as a fascinating market research tool. You can test what different audience types respond to which messages, imagery, propositions etc.

And with a budget of just £1 a day on Facebook ads, you can get in front of 4,000 people that wouldn’t have seen your brand otherwise.

Not bad?

Some businesses are apprehensive when it comes to investing in advertising on Facebook. The array of options are daunting. You may have tried boosting a post and been disappointed. But there are so many of reasons for that. Not least, it helps to know what you’re doing!

But as part of your journey of Facebook discovery, why not try spending a modest budget, if for no other reason than to build awareness. You can set up a daily budget for Facebook Ads for as little as £1. You can target this at Fans (and get the full reach you intended), or Fans’ Connections (multiply the number of fans by their friends… the numbers get quite big); or to a geographic location or by zillions of other factors.

This allows you to explore the myriad options that Facebook Ads offers in a low risk environment.

There are many, many targeting options for you to go well beyond your Fans, but that’s a subject for another post!